Sermon Sunday March 2 2008
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“If you we’re blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” This is what our Lord Jesus says to the Pharisees at the end of today’s Gospel lesson. This whole passage is filled with symbolic images of blindness as being something that actually binds us from the truth, keeps us from the truth, but here Jesus says to the Pharisees that if they were blind they would have no sin. So what does that mean? If spiritual blindness keeps us from the truth of the Gospel why would Jesus say to these Pharisees that if they were blind they would not have sin?
Well, Jesus must be talking about another type of blindness. If spiritual blindness hides the truth from us, then maybe worldly blindness opens the truth up to us. Through the sinful world that we live in, we are constantly bombarded with lies and delusions that we are more than willing to believe. Not only do we believe them but we embrace them and we create our own delusions of grandeur around them. This is what Christ Jesus wants us to be blind from.
Right from the opening verses of the Gospel lesson we see people who are in need of this sort of blindness; people who need to be blinded from the illusions that they have created for themselves. And so we see Jesus and the disciples encounter a blind man and the disciples ask Jesus whether it was the man’s sin or the sin of his parents that caused him to be born blind.
Now, it would be easy to just give this part a cursory glance and simply say well “The disciples were just wrong, the guy was just born blind.” But think further about what the question of the disciples says of themselves. If their presumption is that this man’s blindness was the result of his sin, then what do they assume of themselves? If they assume that sin must be the cause of the man’s blindness then it can only be assumed that they must think that at that the very least, they are not quite the sinner that this man is, otherwise they also would have been born blind.
But Jesus then shatters the illusions that the disciples were clinging to of their own personal righteousness and piety by telling them that this man had been born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. This man whom the disciples saw as nothing but a sinner, which of course he was, was going to be used by Christ Jesus as a means to reveal the work of God. The delusion of their own personal piety had made it so the disciples couldn’t see that they were every bit the sinner that this blind man was.
And the delusions of the disciples are our delusions also. Anytime we look down upon someone struggling with something that we are not struggling with, be it an addiction or a bad relationship or whatever, and we say “Well they brought that on upon themselves” then we show ourselves to be bound by the same delusions that haunted the disciples.
And Jesus then declares that as long as He is in the world He is the light of the world and He then rubbed some mud on the eyes of the blind man and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man did as Jesus told him and he came back and his sight had been restored.
And then his neighbors saw him and they couldn’t look beyond their pre-conceived notions of him as a beggar. And when they finally came to the realization that it was him, all that they saw was social upheaval. They were threatened by the very idea that Jesus would heal this man’s sight, and so they went to the authorities.
And so we come to the Pharisees. And the formerly blind man is brought before them and he tells the Pharisees what Jesus had done for him. The immediate reaction of the Pharisees was not shock, it wasn’t even disbelief as you might expect. The immediate response of the Pharisees was to say that Jesus could not have been from God because He did not observe the Sabbath. Apparently the fact that He was able to perform a miracle had no impact on them.
All of these people; the disciples, the Pharisees, the man’s neighbors were all bound by their own self-imposed delusions. They couldn’t look beyond their own pre-conceived notions of the formerly blind man, whether they saw him as a sinner, a beggar or a law-breaker, they were all bound by their own delusions. And the Pharisees had the added burden of seeing their own authority being threatened.
They couldn’t look beyond the outward appearance of what was going on. This is the case with us. Often we would rather use outward appearances as a basis for acceptance or rejection. Even Samuel gave in to this weakness, as we see in the Old Testament lesson where Samuel has been sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel. Samuel assumes that David’s brother Eliab is the one he is to anoint as king, But he is mistaken and the Lord tells him that He has rejected Eliab and He tells him to not look on appearance or height or stature, because the Lord does not look upon physical stature but upon the heart. And so one by one Samuel rejects all of David’s brothers and when Samuel finally sees David, he is told by the Lord to anoint him.
So maybe you hear that God looks upon the heart and not upon physical stature and think that you are ok. You think well as long as you got a good heart then you’re alright. Oh, but that it were that simple. I mean really if God did look merely upon our physical appearance and stature, the possibility might actually exist to fool Him. But that God looks upon our heart means that there is no running from the light that exposes our sin. When God looks upon our heart; that is when He sees us for the sinners that we really are. When He looked on David’s heart what did He see? History would reveal that He saw at the very least a deceptive, adulterous murderer. And yet He still chose David to be king of Israel.
He chose David and from the line of David would come a Savior; a Savior who would bring release for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind and He would come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. From the line of David would come a Savior who would bear the burden of all our sins on the cross and thus free us from sin, death, and the devil. But unlike David this King would not receive an earthly anointing but rather an anointing from His Father in Heaven. But on earth He would be persecuted, despised and rejected, and we would have went right along with those who were there. Our sin kills the Savior just as much as the sin of the ones who drove the nails into His hands.
And when God looks upon our heart, that’s what He sees; the darkness of our sinful delusions. He sees how we would rather trust our preconceived notions than trust Him. But just as He chose David even as the darkness of David’s sin was exposed, He also chooses us. He chooses us in the waters of baptism when we are marked with His cross and sealed by the Holy Spirit and He calls, gathers, and enlightens us in our faith through His Word and the sacraments.
And so when He looks upon our heart, He doesn’t see just our darkness, but more importantly He sees the light of the anointed Savior Christ Jesus. And so as He comes to you daily in His word and the sacraments and each other, He daily blinds you to the darkness of your delusions. So hear the words of Paul from our second lesson for today through which our Lord tells you that once you were darkness but now in the Lord you are light. The darkness of your sin has been exposed and nailed to the cross where your Savior took your sin upon Himself. All that’s left is the light of forgiveness, so live in it.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“If you we’re blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” This is what our Lord Jesus says to the Pharisees at the end of today’s Gospel lesson. This whole passage is filled with symbolic images of blindness as being something that actually binds us from the truth, keeps us from the truth, but here Jesus says to the Pharisees that if they were blind they would have no sin. So what does that mean? If spiritual blindness keeps us from the truth of the Gospel why would Jesus say to these Pharisees that if they were blind they would not have sin?
Well, Jesus must be talking about another type of blindness. If spiritual blindness hides the truth from us, then maybe worldly blindness opens the truth up to us. Through the sinful world that we live in, we are constantly bombarded with lies and delusions that we are more than willing to believe. Not only do we believe them but we embrace them and we create our own delusions of grandeur around them. This is what Christ Jesus wants us to be blind from.
Right from the opening verses of the Gospel lesson we see people who are in need of this sort of blindness; people who need to be blinded from the illusions that they have created for themselves. And so we see Jesus and the disciples encounter a blind man and the disciples ask Jesus whether it was the man’s sin or the sin of his parents that caused him to be born blind.
Now, it would be easy to just give this part a cursory glance and simply say well “The disciples were just wrong, the guy was just born blind.” But think further about what the question of the disciples says of themselves. If their presumption is that this man’s blindness was the result of his sin, then what do they assume of themselves? If they assume that sin must be the cause of the man’s blindness then it can only be assumed that they must think that at that the very least, they are not quite the sinner that this man is, otherwise they also would have been born blind.
But Jesus then shatters the illusions that the disciples were clinging to of their own personal righteousness and piety by telling them that this man had been born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. This man whom the disciples saw as nothing but a sinner, which of course he was, was going to be used by Christ Jesus as a means to reveal the work of God. The delusion of their own personal piety had made it so the disciples couldn’t see that they were every bit the sinner that this blind man was.
And the delusions of the disciples are our delusions also. Anytime we look down upon someone struggling with something that we are not struggling with, be it an addiction or a bad relationship or whatever, and we say “Well they brought that on upon themselves” then we show ourselves to be bound by the same delusions that haunted the disciples.
And Jesus then declares that as long as He is in the world He is the light of the world and He then rubbed some mud on the eyes of the blind man and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man did as Jesus told him and he came back and his sight had been restored.
And then his neighbors saw him and they couldn’t look beyond their pre-conceived notions of him as a beggar. And when they finally came to the realization that it was him, all that they saw was social upheaval. They were threatened by the very idea that Jesus would heal this man’s sight, and so they went to the authorities.
And so we come to the Pharisees. And the formerly blind man is brought before them and he tells the Pharisees what Jesus had done for him. The immediate reaction of the Pharisees was not shock, it wasn’t even disbelief as you might expect. The immediate response of the Pharisees was to say that Jesus could not have been from God because He did not observe the Sabbath. Apparently the fact that He was able to perform a miracle had no impact on them.
All of these people; the disciples, the Pharisees, the man’s neighbors were all bound by their own self-imposed delusions. They couldn’t look beyond their own pre-conceived notions of the formerly blind man, whether they saw him as a sinner, a beggar or a law-breaker, they were all bound by their own delusions. And the Pharisees had the added burden of seeing their own authority being threatened.
They couldn’t look beyond the outward appearance of what was going on. This is the case with us. Often we would rather use outward appearances as a basis for acceptance or rejection. Even Samuel gave in to this weakness, as we see in the Old Testament lesson where Samuel has been sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel. Samuel assumes that David’s brother Eliab is the one he is to anoint as king, But he is mistaken and the Lord tells him that He has rejected Eliab and He tells him to not look on appearance or height or stature, because the Lord does not look upon physical stature but upon the heart. And so one by one Samuel rejects all of David’s brothers and when Samuel finally sees David, he is told by the Lord to anoint him.
So maybe you hear that God looks upon the heart and not upon physical stature and think that you are ok. You think well as long as you got a good heart then you’re alright. Oh, but that it were that simple. I mean really if God did look merely upon our physical appearance and stature, the possibility might actually exist to fool Him. But that God looks upon our heart means that there is no running from the light that exposes our sin. When God looks upon our heart; that is when He sees us for the sinners that we really are. When He looked on David’s heart what did He see? History would reveal that He saw at the very least a deceptive, adulterous murderer. And yet He still chose David to be king of Israel.
He chose David and from the line of David would come a Savior; a Savior who would bring release for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind and He would come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. From the line of David would come a Savior who would bear the burden of all our sins on the cross and thus free us from sin, death, and the devil. But unlike David this King would not receive an earthly anointing but rather an anointing from His Father in Heaven. But on earth He would be persecuted, despised and rejected, and we would have went right along with those who were there. Our sin kills the Savior just as much as the sin of the ones who drove the nails into His hands.
And when God looks upon our heart, that’s what He sees; the darkness of our sinful delusions. He sees how we would rather trust our preconceived notions than trust Him. But just as He chose David even as the darkness of David’s sin was exposed, He also chooses us. He chooses us in the waters of baptism when we are marked with His cross and sealed by the Holy Spirit and He calls, gathers, and enlightens us in our faith through His Word and the sacraments.
And so when He looks upon our heart, He doesn’t see just our darkness, but more importantly He sees the light of the anointed Savior Christ Jesus. And so as He comes to you daily in His word and the sacraments and each other, He daily blinds you to the darkness of your delusions. So hear the words of Paul from our second lesson for today through which our Lord tells you that once you were darkness but now in the Lord you are light. The darkness of your sin has been exposed and nailed to the cross where your Savior took your sin upon Himself. All that’s left is the light of forgiveness, so live in it.
Amen
posted by Steve at 11:58 AM
2 Comments:
This one just seemed to be very disconnected. It was really hard to follow-I had to go back and start from the beginning and still didn't really get what you were getting at. I see you were running through the story, hitting each part, explaining how we do the same. But then, what was your overall purpose in the sermon?
After reading this for the third time, I think the problem I have lies in that I think you began to speak about spiritual darkness and how we, like the disciples, are blind too, and then you took it in a different direction that seems disconnected with that first part. That is where I got confused about what you were trying to say. And when you did that, you barely hit upon our own blindness because you moved onto the crowds and pharisees. I was waiting for more on my own blindness.
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